see also

Americans in July continued to splurge on cars — but they certainly weren’t driving them to the mall to go shopping.

Retail sales in July were “virtually unchanged” from June, according to figures released by the Commerce Department on Friday after growing 0.8 percent in June.

The falloff in spending in July disappointed Wall Street, which was expecting a 0.4 percent jump in sales.

Further confounding the Street is that June’s figures were revised upward from their original estimate of 0.6 percent — meaning consumers simply stopped shopping last month.

Over the last year, retail sales increased 2.3 percent.

The one bright spot was auto sales, which showed a 1.3 percent gain in July.

Without auto sales, July retail sales would have dropped 0.3 percent.

Michael Feroli, an economist with JPMorgan Chase, said the retail sales hot streak has ended and called the figures a “disappointment” in a note following the data release.

The weaker-than-expected July numbers helped send the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 down on the day. Of course, the two indexes — plus the Nasdaq — hit all-time highs on Thursday.

The poor retail numbers, plus a Labor Department report showing producer prices fell 0.4 percent in July — meaning the threat of inflation was remote — lessened the chances that the Federal Reserve would raise rates when it met next month.

In fact, data compiled by Bloomberg showed that the probability of a September rate hike already fell 4 percentage points from Thursday, to 18 percent, suggesting that the month’s dormant sales figures represent a broader trend instead of a one-time blip.

Meanwhile, even though there were bright spots in Friday’s report, they spoke to the broader problems in the retail space.

Furniture sales were up 0.2 percent from the previous month, giving shoppers less of a reason to leave their newly plush homes.

Non-store sales — which generally means online shopping — were also a bright spot, growing 1.3 percent, meaning that consumers who bought furniture during the month were really enjoying shopping from the comfort of their new armchairs.